This invention relates to a precision fragrance dispenser apparatus and especially to a fragrance dispenser suitable for use in theaters, computer games, and virtual reality shows or anywhere it is desirable to coordinate smell with visual and audio image displays.
Precision fragrance dispensing is made directly to an individual and is coordinated with the viewing of a motion picture or television or to the viewing of an image in virtual reality or in computer games so that the viewer can realistically experience the full effect or illusion of being a part of or physically responding to the environment depicted by the viewed image and the accompanying audio. Existing theatre systems and television and computer games and virtual reality generally are provided with a visual image along with the audio used in connection with the visual image. Past attempts, however, at incorporating the addition of smell to the overall viewing environment have not generally been successful and have not been widely accepted. One of the reasons for the lack of acceptance is the difficulty of providing smell to an individual user with any precision without providing the dispensed spell to a large area and to the problem of dissipating one smell and feeding a second smell as the scenes being viewed change. The smell sensation loses its effect and does not tend to provide the more accurate smells that attend any particular scene being viewed.
One prior art patent which attempts to provide a combination of a viewing chair and sense stimulating means for use in motion picture television theaters is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,829 to Hellig and includes a seat with arm rests having a back which terminates into a hood over the chair. The chair includes means for rocking the chair in various directions as well as means for vibrating the chair and an odor producing system associated with the chair which includes odor conducting conduits and means for moving air through the odor producing conduits towards the face of the spectator seated in the chair. The chair includes air passageways and exit ports for directing air towards various portions of the spectator's body and a system for feeding the air to the air passageways and exhausting the odors around a chair for removing the odors. The Hellig system also includes a loudspeaker associated with the hood of a chair. This odor producing system attempts to direct the odors and the flow of air to the area around the user's head and nose and then exhausts it from the area around the user's head and maintains the odors by partially enclosing the head. This, however, has had limited success because of the inability to precisely govern the dispensing of the various smells at precise moments and due to the delay in removing the generated odor in the area of the user's head.
The present invention is directed towards a precision fragrance dispenser which accurately dispenses the fragrances to an individual controlled by the individual's breathing and localized to the intake of air by the individual.